Tiki Barber was making news (not reporting it) less than a day into his retirement: He seemed to imply that Tom Coughlin drove him into retirement with his insane ways.

(Smooth move by Tiki to pivot the myth of his early retirement as someone else's fault... and, with Coughlin's rep, it's an easy concept for fans to buy into.)

I don't understand the massive NASCAR crackdown on all those crew chiefs, but the upshot seems to me that the sport has proportionately more cheaters, per team, than either the NFL or MLB.

NBA: The Knicks beat the Lakers, to match last year's victory total in close to 30 fewer games. As I said yesterday: Isiah Thomas for Coach of the (Mid-) Year is NOT as crazy a notion as I was getting hammered for in the Comments section.

You know what? Screw Isiah and the Knicks: Let me point out an even more respectable "compared-to-last-year-" milestone: The Raptors have now won one more game than in all of last season, beating the Bulls for their 9th win in the last 11 games.

The Raps are the Pleasant Surprise of the (Mid-)Year, and I should have given Sam Mitchell more love for Coach of the (Mid-)Year.

If the season ended today, not only would the Raptors be in the playoffs, but they would have home-court advantage in the first round... against the Bulls.

Mark down Feb. 13: The Heat got back to .500. Pat Riley is ready to re-join the team. And they're going to not only win the East, but repeat as champs.

NBA Trade Deadline coming: The Sixers reportedly won't trade Andre Miller, which is a good thing, because they'll want a classic point guard to get the ball to Oden, Durant or the other big man they draft.

AI to miss All-Star Game: Ray Allen was named his replacement (Okur was named replacement for Steve Nash. Hardly an even swap.) MJD over at NBA Fanhouse points out that this adds to the projected shittiness of the game.

Gilbert Arenas Detail of the Day: He has made up 100 All-Star jerseys with "Agent Zero" on the back to give away to fans in the arena on Sunday. But way cooler: He says he is thinking about wearing one of them himself in the game. It's a perfect symbol for the spice Arenas has added to this season. The NBA needs to embrace that. (Come on: It's the All-Star Game!)

College Hoops Tonight: Could Duke lose FIVE STRAIGHT ACC GAMES?! With a game at ACC-leading B.C. (still underrated at No. 21), the answer is resoundingly yes.

The NCAA Tournament Selection honcho said that last year's mid-major madness won't affect this year's selections. I'm not sure that should be the case: After all, the "power conferences" annually enjoy the benefits of "reputation picks."

But he also correctly pointed out that the muddle in the middle of the power-conference pack (and the craziness on the edge of the bubble right now) should make conference tournaments this year's X-factor.

In previous years, that X-factor has been RPI and strength of schedule. It'll be cool to have it come down to winning games when it matters and should give the power-conference tournaments the intensity of the national tournament.

MLB: The league is 4-0 in arbitration cases. I always wondered if players who lose arbitration get bitter and drop their intensity. (Or do they work even harder to make the team pay more in the long run?)

Here's what I should have noted about Carlos Zambrano's contract expectations: Given what has been dished out on the open market (by his own team, no less), how much would Z be worth on the open market? Because I can't think of an NL pitcher who should command more money.

Your Westminster Dog Show Champ: James, an English springer spaniel.

Thoughts and prayers with the two Illinois players injured in that car crash...

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm looking for your (non-sexual) athlete man-crushes (or woman-crushes). And I'm not talking about "Wow, I'd love to hit it with Danica Patrick." I'm talking about "Yes, I admit my (non-sexual) man-crush on Gilbert Arenas."

I have a (non-sexual) man-crush on Shaun Livingston. He is from my hometown (Peoria, IL) and shoulda, woulda, coulda, wasgonna go to my former university (Duke). Now I just wish he could live up to his potential.

The Heat ARE NOT going to repeat. There are too many teams in the East playing very well right now (the Raptors, Cavs, Wiz, Pistons) for a .500 team to make it all the way through the playoffs. Plus, the Mavs will be waiting in the finals.

Duke will lose at BC.

And the mid-majors are having a down year, not including the MVC (which really shouldn't be a mid-major) or the Mtn West. The CAA, A10, MAC, WAC, and CUSA could all have no at-larges.

The Mtn West is underrated, by the way. BYU, Air Force, and UNLV are all damn good.

Any red-blooded, American who does not admit to having a man-crush on Tom Brady is a liar.

Consider the entire body of work. Starting NFL QB, 3 superbowl rings, 2 MVPs, $60M contract, endorsement revenue. And we have not even gotten into his transgressions with various female celebrities. Just wait until he retires and runs for President.

UNC lost to VT? VT came out and won the game- it was a hard nosed game on both sides, and came down to the wire; both teams had multiple chances to put it away during regulation and OT, but neither capitalized.

Tech is no fluke this year; 2 road wins on Tobacco Road, home wins against UNC, Maryland (when they were ranked), and UVA.

Non-sexual man-crush: Donald Driver. He never complains about his contract or playing time. He is a well-mannered player, definately not a me-first receiver. He get's underpaid for his annual performance (compared to the market, and still gives 100% on every play. While he may not be the best receiver in the game (but he is in the top 15), his attitude and leadership are huge for the Packers. He is also extremely consistent. His stats for the last three seasons are almost identical to one another: 1200 yards, 11 TDs, 14.2 yards per reception.

congrats have to go to Isiah. even if the knicks don't make the playoffs he still can shove it in the face of every single reporter who tried to burn him at the stake after last year. He is outcoaching the supposed coaching "legend" larry brown by leaps and bounds.

Yeah, why interview an OC with a desire to run the ball first, when you can pluck an SEC coordinator and incorporate all sorts of reverses, throwbacks, and other daffy duck plays that don't work against sound defenses? Please. And yes, the Badgers do much more than "Dayne left, Dayne Right, Dayne up the middle" now. But they always run first and keep running if you don't stop it. Why, it's almost too simple to actually work!

Speaking of man crushes, I have one for someone I would like to see run for president and that is Al Gore if anyone else is with me to my blog and there is a link there to sign a petition to try and get him to run.

I have never watched the NBA all-star game. I almost never watch the pro-bowl either. The one all star game I still enjoy on occasion is baseball for some reason but it has even been a while since I have watched that. All-star games remove most of the elements that attracts me to sports.

Does anyone north of the Mason Dixon line watch Nascar? I realize it is wildly popular in places but I personally don't know of anyone here in NY who follows it.

For that matter, does anyone who doesn't carry an AARP card follow horse racing? There are half the number of racing tracks in the US that there used to be and I predict by the time I am an old man there will be about 10 in this country.

Football is universally followed everywhere it seems. However young black inner city kids hardly follow baseball at all anymore. Hockey is obviously regional to the northern states. I would say basketball is 2nd to football in universal appeal.

The problem with the mid-Majors, and especially the MVC, is that they are so balanced top to bottom. Look at the MVC. Only 2 teams have an overall record below .500 and we all know that they do great with scheduling quality non-conference games. On any given night, any team in that conference can beat another team from that conference. Yes, that means Southern Illinios could lose to Illinois St at any time because the league is so balanced. That's going to hurt them. Teams like my UNI Panthers went 9-2 non-conference and they are 7-9 in conference. Not because they aren't a good team, but because every team in the conference is good too.

And because it's a "mid-major" conference, midlevel teams in the conference won't make the tourney, whcih is unfortunate.

Dan, are you still getting those idiot comments that have nothing to do with sports or this site?

Huge amount of NASCAR fans in Canada and northeast U.S., New Hampshire Speedway is sold out every year with 100k seats plus tracks in New York, Penn.,Delaware,Michigan,and Indiana, it is second in ratings to the NFL, get with it buddy.

I'm always excited by the NBA All-Star. The 3 point contest is always favorite while the dunk contest has enjoyed a quiet resurgence since it took a two year hiatus.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Heat went to the finals again. They might even win it all again if Wade gets preferential treatment from the refs again (see phantom foul on Dirk at the end of game 5 of '06 finals)

I watched the A&M Game, Acie Law is unbelievable. Virginia Tech (Please, ESPN, stop calling it VA-Tech) is playing great ball right now. Funny that last week, the two top teams in the ACC were Virginia and BC, and both were unranked. Tech pummeled UVA at home, but didn't get much credit for beating the top team in the conference. Whoever wins that conference this year should really thank Tech.

I think Isiah should be a candidate for NBA coach of the year, and also for Worst NBA executive of the year. He needs to stay on the bench and divest himself of all additional duties.

Sports Man-Crush might be Clinton Portis for his weekly press-conference antics and his mostly unselfish team play. In his Cub days, I really liked Rick Sutcliffe -- he took a pay cut to bring in Andre Dawson, and was the first player to charge the mound after Eric Schow(?) hit Dawson in the face with a pitch. Not bad for a pitcher.

Danielle had so much promise until she said Indiana!

Washington Post just did a great article on the Washington Nationals sports bloggers. Stan Kasten, the Nationals President, just did a round of interviewers with the bloggers and acknowledged that he reads their sites every day. The Washington Caps give press passes to sports bloggers. All in, I think DC is the most blog-friendly sports teams (minus Dan Snyder, who wants a 10 year commitment from all internet users).

If Dan is this quick posting comments today, we should pray for snow every day!

What does "Gentlemen... start your engines" have to do with *sport*!?!? Driving a car fast and making left turns is not an athletic feat. It's no more a sport than poker or the spelling bee (i.e. just because it's on ESPN does not make it a sport!).

The MVC, if it can keep up last year and this year into next year, cannot any longer be considered a mid-major. Their RPI is higher than the Big XII's, and an article on ESPN points out that the lowest RPI team in the MVC has a higher RPI than nine (NINE) major conference teams (only the SEC has all of its teams above the MVC's worst).

Damn you new Blogger! Every time I go to preview my comments before submitting them they disappear ("Your request could not be processed...") Sam Mitchell has to be coach of the year. The Knicks are operating under a different set of circumstances, a set of circumstances that can afford everything excpet rewarding mediocrity. The Raptors have actually turned a corner. The Knicks are just sort of proving the law of averages. As a lifelong Hoyas fan (born on the hilltop) I feel it is OK to admit my dual man crush: Allen Iverson and Alonzo Mourning. I said it's OK but I still don't feel OK. Damn...

They play in the weak East, so they can sit around and twiddle their thumbs the first half of the season. As the playoffs get closer they can kick it in gear and make the playoffs easily. They can then downshift to netural and coast through the first round. Now they are fresh, healthy and ready to play.

A team in the West can not do this. If a West team blinks too many times they miss the playoffs. In addition the entire West playoff run will be a beating. The winner of the West emerges banged and brusied having just went through the gauntlet that is the West.

Man-Crush= Joe Crede. Its ridiculous he hasn't won a gold-glove yet. His defense and clutch bat in the 2005 playoffs helped the White Sox to the most dominating postseason in the last 2 1/2 decades.

Huge huge HUGE "mid-major" game this weekend: SIU @ Butler. This is what college basketball is all about. Go Salukis! I agree with andy regarding the MVC. Not many conferences out there are that solid top to bottom. Those are teams that the top teams do not want to play in the tourney, cause it has upset written all over it.

Just what is an athlete? The Encarta World Dictionary defines "athlete" as somebody who has the necessary abilities to participate in physical exercise, especially in competitive situations such as games, races, and matches. By this definition any race driver is an athlete. The unadvised baseball or football fan will immediately argue, "The driver just sits there and drives. Anybody can do that! The car does all the work." We can agree that exertion is one factor that all athletes must do to perform their sport. These callers won't argue that an outfielder in baseball or an offensive linesman in football is not an athlete. We've grown up with these sports and the athletes that play them. We've watched or played them through school so we know that ball players are athletes. I won't argue that either, but since everyone has their own opinion on what makes an athlete a comparison of NASCAR drivers to the athletes of the two major sports, baseball and football, may open a few eyes. On that line, let's look at the baseball outfielder first.

In this hypothetical game, the outfielder's team is batting first so he sits on a bench waiting for his turn. He's batting sixth and the team makes three straight outs so after about 5-10 minutes of sitting watching his teammates make outs, he has to get up and trot out to the outfield. His pitcher is throwing great today so the other team gets three straight outs and the outfielder doesn't have to move a step once he's trotted out there. So he trots back into the dugout and sits down, waiting another five minutes for his turn to bat. Since the other team's pitcher is just as hot today, he strikes out, making the third out of the inning. He heads back to the outfield to stand around and wait for a ball to come his way. After nine innings, this outfielder has trotted out to his position nine times, taken 3 or 4 times at bat and if he goes hitless, does nothing else during the game but sit on the bench in the dugout and stand around out in the outfield. A total of maybe ten minutes of exertion in a 2 1/2 hour game is all it takes to make a baseball player an athlete.

Now your average offensive linesman in football is a little easier to figure out total exertion time. The average NFL football team runs 62 offensive plays per game. The average play lasts 7-10 seconds. A little figuring tells us the offensive linesman is actually playing for a total of 7-10 minutes in a three and a half hour game. The rest of the time he is watching his defensive teammates play while standing around on the sidelines, standing around on the field in a huddle or waiting for play to resume. So once again it only takes exertion time of 7-10 minutes in over three hours to make an athlete.

Your typical NASCAR race lasts 3-4 hours. The driver is performing for all 3-4 hours except for a few 15-second pit stops when he can grab a quick drink of water. There is no sitting on a bench watching his teammates play or standing in the field hoping a ball comes his way (or hoping not). There is no standing around on a sideline or in a huddle waiting for a seven second period of activity. The NASCAR driver climbs in his car and goes through three to four hours straight of physical activity with 2-3 minutes of total rest time during the average pit stops per race.

Besides the extreme heat conditions there is also the physical strain of your body fighting 2 to 2 1/2 G-forces in the corners. A G-force is gravity's effect on our bodies. One G-force is our normal everyday measurement. For each additional G-force the effect of gravity's stress on us is equivalent to doubling our weight. So for half the race (the time the car is going through the turns) the driver must fight the G-forces trying to crush him into his seat and making him feel as if he weighs 400 pounds.

We have all, also, felt the effect of taking a turn too fast. We must fight to stay upright as the car's inertia tries to throw us to the other side of the car. Now picture, if you will, taking that turn four times faster and doing it repeatedly every 20 or 30 seconds for 4 hours. The drivers must literally fight to stay in their seats for two hours of a four-hour race. They get no breaks, no watching their teammate while they stand around or no sitting in a shaded dugout on a bench.

There are dozens of other reasons that a NASCAR driver is an athlete: the mental strain of avoiding other cars at 190 MPH; the eye, hands and feet dexterity and coordination needed to run the races; even the agility needed to climb into and out of the tight confines needed for safety. But if you just compare the amount of exertion put out by a driver in his four hours of total concentration and physical stress and strain to the 10 minutes of trotting out on a field or swinging at a ball by our "outfielder" you can only draw one conclusion. If those ball players are athletes then NASCAR drivers are much more the athletes.

RPI is a bogus stat that favors Mid-Major conferences. The calculation is based on winning %, strength of schedule, and opponents' strength of schedule. So a mid major (take my hometown Salukis) plays an early season game against Indiana (and loses on the road). They get a boost because they improve their SoS, and then get the ratings bonus because Indiana plays a Big 10 schedule, plus Duke and Kentucky.

For the Mid-Major teams (particularly the MVC), playing early season games against top 10 opponents boosts a team value, even without winning. Then they schedule their non-conference gimmes (boosting their own winning percent), and ride the "strength of conference play" into a higher RPI. It's probably easier to go .500 in MVC conference play (I know there are some good teams there, I am just using them as an example since the entire conference is at or near .500 in conference play) than it is to go .500 in the ACC or Big East. Thus, their winning percentage will remain high through conference play, and their opponents' SoS will remain high because they played one top 10 team early, and now are playing a conference full of .500 teams.

This is a silly stat that favors the mid-majors -- boosting their tournament appearances.

The Texans are seemingly going to eat it on Carr (making passing up VY look stupid) AND going to sign Jake Plummer. JAKE PLUMMER??? I would rather them sign former WWF Superstar Jake The Snake Roberts. At least then our games would be entertaining.

As a Raptors fan for the past few years I can tell you that Sam Mitchell should not be Coach of the Year. He is getting better, but the large part of the credit for the Raptors improvement goes to the Euro's brought in by Colangelo and winning the #1 in the lottery.

I've got nothing against Mitchell, I just don't think that he's a top level coach in the league. But people always want to award Coach of the Year to coaches on teams that make big improvements, and so Mitchell's name gets tossed out there.

I believe that I stated before that I don't believe an athlete and a sport have to overlap.

I'm not sure you would describe David Wells as athletic but you would describe baseball as a sport.

I'm sure you would describe an Air Force fighter pilot as an athlete (have you ever seen those guys?) but I'm not sure that flying an F-16 is a sport.

That's why my official opinion is that NASCAR is not a sport, but you have to be an athlete to be a driver.

This is like saying Tiger Woods is an athlete (apparently he's got a pretty good handle and jumper) but John Daly is not. Golf is not a sport either. That doesn't mean that it isn't fun to watch at times.

I'd also like to point out that even if NASCAR was a sport, it would fall under "Endurance Sport" much like Cycling because you do the same thing over and over again. In fact cycling (at least of the Tour de France sort) would be more of a sport because the terrain changes and you pedal the machine yourself.

We had a huge discussion on what is a sport last weekend (and granted i can't remember most of it because i got fairly drunk by the end) my stance was its not a sport if it involves a self-propelling machine (including any organic machine aka a horse). Using tools is not a part of this (so baseball and golf aren't a part of the conversation). That was basically my only criteria to create a "non-sport". Defining sport in a bunch of credentials doesn't seem logical. It is way to subjective and requires judgement, not objective criteria to check off a list. If that were the case I could create a sport in my basement with a friend which doesn't seem like it would do justice to the word sport. Just my opinion.

This in no way takes away from my admiration towards car racers...i fully understand how incredibly difficult it is and could never do what they do (same with jockeys). But I just dont see it as a sport.

Man-Crush= Joe Crede. Its ridiculous he hasn't won a gold-glove yet. His defense and clutch bat in the 2005 playoffs helped the White Sox to the most dominating postseason in the last 2 1/2 decades.

Couldn't agree more.

I have a share of a season ticket, along with several friends; our seats are in Section 146, in about the eighth row or so. I can't count the number of times I've watched his glove turn a sure double into an out. It's almost criminal that the guy has never been seriously considered for a Gold Glove. (Particularly now that his offense has stepped up to match.)

Let's hope Kenny Williams has enough sense to set aside his hatred of Boras (and Steinbrenner set aside his parsimony) long enough to re-sign the guy.

Believe me, I'm no big Jeff Van Gundy fan, but given that Yao has been out, Tracy's back hasn't been 100%, and Rafer Alston is a starter...well JVG needs some more love for Coach of the Year. If you told someone at the beginning of the year that Yao would miss at least a quarter, would you think the Rockets could have the same record as the Spurs at the break?

Paul Chryst has been O-coordinator at wisky for like 3 years now and has focused on the TEs. Since then they have had 2 TE drafted Owen Daniels and Mark Anelli. Plus Beckum this year was an unstoppable force at the TE position. I think he would be a very successful pro TE coach and work his way up to OC but hopefully he stays put.

My man crush is a tie between Mike Alstott and Dave Moore. I like alstott because he is a class act and he is going to play his entire career for the bucs. It also helps that on every wednesday after practice he would come into my friends work and get a steak sub and eat it while he waited on his calzone. I must have had at least 30 conversations with him over the last ten odd years about everything other than the bucs. I like dave moore because he, like alstott was always a class act, and my picture is up in a certain restaurants wall of fame shaking his hand.

The only female athlete I can say I ever had a crush on was Manon Rheaume. I knew playboy asked her to pose but after the ning cut her who knows what happened to her.

Connect With Me

Quickish

About This Blog

DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.